Monday, July 14, 2008

So it's been months since I've been able to find the time to post our final after pics. So long, that in fact, these pictures are quite out of date as the morning glory has completely covered the ground. A little depressing, but nothing that a short stint of goats in the fall can't take care of. We've been trying to get blackberry dug out - in fits and starts. We planted some red-osier dogwood, twinberry and pacific ninebark in some of the wettest spots. I checked down there over the weekend, and everything I found still seemed to be growing - it was pretty surrounded by horsetail, so I cleared some of that and tried to unwind any morning glory growing on them, that is, until I got thrashed by stinging nettles, which sent Triona and I into a speedy retreat.

Now, here are the pictures! Matched pretty closely by Dan.The apple tree in the background actually blossomed this year (we haven't been able to see it in a few years, so don't know if it has recently). It was beautiful.

It's hard to tell, but the blackberries were up to about the tetherball height - and now it's all knocked down to the ground. You can also see the retaining wall that was previously covered with ivy.

Where once there was an impenetrable wall, you can see down into the ravine

This spot will hopefully be terraced someday so that we can make it easier to get down there.

The lighter area in the back of the after picture is where we've done some planting - I'll be wearing gloves next time!

Thanks for reading our glog - we'll try to post more when/if we make more progress. Still LOTS to do!

I took a wetlands class in graduate school where we learned how to delineate wetlands - basically, what characteristics does a site need to include to be classified a wetland. In addition to wetland soils, vegetation, and hydrology, my professor and TA added: trash. Wetlands are full of trash - very sad, but it does seem to often be the case, and our little backyard riparian zone was no different. We hauled quite a collection of balls, spent fireworks, a swingset, even a lawnmower out of the ravine. Well, we know the weeds will keep growing back, but at least the trash won't!